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These figures do not point to any definite trend; but no comfort
can be gained from them as they are certainly not diminishing.
The Health Advisory Council were asked by the Public Health
Committee to consider what might be done to bring to the attention of the
public the information which points to the increase in the incidence of
this complaint being related to the extent to which cigarettes are being
smoked. They recommended "That the Public Health Committee be
recommended to ask the Public Relations Committee to give the fullest
publicity on the Council's noticeboards and in the Civic Bulletin and Civic
News-sheet, to that part of the Medical Officer of Health's Annual Report
for 1958, dealing with smoking and cancer of the lung, and that such
information be also publicised at Clinics in the Borough, and also conveyed
to the local Press, and to youth organisations and schoolchildren
through the Borough Education Officer".
The Public Health Committee, when they had previosuly discussed
this subject, decided not to do anything about approaching youths or
children at school as it was understood that the County Council were
concentrating on this side of the problem. The County Council in 1956
had arranged for a letter to be addressed to all youth leaders in Middlesex
referring to the fact, and suggesting that it was as well to postpone starting
to smoke until after school years. The County Council felt that the answer
to the whole problem would be found only by a long-term project directed
towards children at school, aiming at getting them to put back the date
on which they first start to smoke, with a hope too that some might not
start at all. It was felt that little was known as to what was the most
effective line of approach to these pupils. To find the answer to this, the
County Health Education Officer undertook research in schools throughout
the county, not merely to find out about the smoking habits ol
children, but to find out how best to present the subject to them in a way
which would influence their views about smoking.
Deaths from Infectious Diseases
These were six from tuberculosis, twenty from influenza and one
from measles.